Although there has been considerable research interest in social and psychological factors influencing longevity, there has been little attention to the community of residence as a social context contributing to either higher or lower than expected mortality. A noted exception is the work on Roseto, Pennsylvania PA, ethnically homogeneous community which, when studied twenty years ago, was characterized by a low death rate and a near immunity to myocardial infarction when compared to a neighboring town and the United States at large. Since then, Roseto has undergone rapid social change consisting of loosening family ties and diminishing community cohesion as well as an increased standard of living, accompanied by rising mortality. The intent of the proposed research is to test further the Roseto hypothesis that community stability and cohesion protect against mortality, by collecting quantitative indicators of cohesion and change and comparing them to age-specific mortality rates in both Roseto and adjacent Bangor, Pennsylvania. By comparing the two communities over the four decades prior to the previous study and updating to the present, we will be able to examine the influence of both social cohesion and social change at the community level on the life chances of community residents.
| Egolf, B; Lasker, J; Wolf, S et al. (1992) The Roseto effect: a 50-year comparison of mortality rates. Am J Public Health 82:1089-92 |
